Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

People with Williams syndrome process faces holistically.

Helen Tager-Flusberg1, Daniela Plesa-Skwerer, Susan Faja

  • 1Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02118, USA. htagerf@bu.edu

Cognition
|August 2, 2003
PubMed
Summary

Individuals with Williams syndrome demonstrate holistic face recognition, similar to controls, despite overall lower performance. This suggests shared neurocognitive mechanisms for processing faces, challenging prior research.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Prenatal Air Pollution Exposure and Autism Spectrum Disorder in the ECHO Consortium.

Environmental health perspectives·2026
Same author

Developing a consensus research definition for profound autism using a modified Delphi method.

Molecular autism·2026
Same author

The developmental trajectory of EEG alpha coherence in autistic toddlers with and without language delay.

medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences·2026
Same author

Assessing cognition in autistic youth with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder using the NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery: An Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes-Wide Cohort Study.

JCPP advances·2026
Same author

A longitudinal investigation of aggression and social skills in autistic youth.

Research in autism·2026
Same author

Assisted Communication Cannot Bypass Objective Research Investigation.

Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research·2026

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Genetics

Background:

  • Williams syndrome is a genetic disorder associated with cognitive and social differences.
  • Previous research suggested atypical face processing in individuals with Williams syndrome.
  • Understanding face recognition mechanisms is crucial for cognitive development research.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate face recognition abilities in adolescents and adults with Williams syndrome.
  • To compare face processing patterns between individuals with Williams syndrome and neurotypical controls.
  • To determine if Williams syndrome involves holistic face encoding.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized the whole-part paradigm for face recognition assessment.
  • Compared performance of 47 individuals with Williams syndrome to 39 age-matched controls.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Analyzed performance on upright and inverted faces in whole-face and isolated-part conditions.

    • Main Results:

    • Participants with Williams syndrome showed lower overall performance compared to controls.
    • Both groups exhibited a significant whole-face advantage for upright faces.
    • This advantage was absent for inverted faces in both groups.

    Conclusions:

    • Individuals with Williams syndrome encode and recognize faces holistically, similar to controls.
    • Findings suggest comparable underlying neurocognitive mechanisms for face processing.
    • This study challenges previous reports of abnormal face processing in Williams syndrome.